DANCE WOUNDED

     We have talked about what it looks like to wait with God.  That it is a time to bind together and adhere to each other.  We have talked about how trials of this life are normal and even a healthy part of the human experience because if we go through them bound to Christ we receive much benefit.  The benefit being more intimacy with Jesus.  There is nothing that makes life more enjoyable the being intimate with Christ.  There is one more thing that I found in my study on waiting that I am just bursting to share.  Maybe it is dear to me because of my back round in Musical Theater I don't know but I love the word picture. 
     Jeremiah, wrote the book of Lamentations.  He was a prophet so that just means that God told him what was going to happen before it did.  God told him of judgement but also of redemption.  Many ask how can a God that judges be good.  I would humbly respond to that how can a God that doesn't judge be good.  There has to be a separation between good and evil.  With out it our entire existence is pointless.   Jeremiah laments over the condition of Israel in the Lamentations but there is this sweet spot in the middle of the book where the mercy and grace of God comes into focus. 
Through the LORD's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therfore I hope in Him." The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him, it is good that one should hope and wait for the salvation of the LORD. 
Lamentations 3:24-25

  The word HOPE is used twice in these two verses.  The first time the meaning is what we would most often think of the word hope to mean.  It is to wait, be patient, stay, tarry and to trust.  The second time it's used it means to twist or whirl in a circular or spiral manner, to dance, to writhe in pain, to grieve, to be in pain, trust, to wait carefully and to be wounded! 
     What!  How can one word mean to dance and be wounded at the same time!  That can often be what pressing on in this life looks like. 
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed- always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 2 Cor. 4:7-10
     The encouragement today is to dance wounded. There is usually something that is painful happening. A loss of a dream, a person we love, health we once knew. Still because we have the hope of heaven and the desire for others to join us we dance. Twist and twirl in the hope we have.